Bio

John Heid is a senior public relations professional with corporate and agency experience in many B-to-B and B-to-C retail sectors, including agriculture, automotive and transportation, food and beverage, fuel service/CPG, healthcare, insurance and financial services, office supplies, sports and entertainment and vehicle technology and electronics. He has also attained extensive experience with clients in the non-profit worlds during both in-house and agency roles.

As owner of John Heid PR, LLC, John focuses on helping businesses and non-profits create an awareness and publicity strategy, garner media attention and build donor bases. Since March 2025, he helped his clients earn more than 271 national, regional and local placements across multiple mediums that have reached a potential audience of more than 1.12 billion.

Heid is a veteran storyteller and media strategist with strong media relations acumen. An experience media trainer, John owns relationships with all facets of media (broadcast, print, online) nationally and across more than 350 markets around the United States. He created and led Weber Shandwick’s local media list repository for nearly a decade.

An upstate New York native and long-time Atlanta-area resident, Heid has developed and honed management skills to effectively lead cross-functional teams in execution of hundreds of multi-market and multi-platform campaigns that have resulted in more than 2,000 spokesperson interviews and over 20,459 media placements during in-house and agency roles. He’s personally secured over 13,459 media placements that include national outlets – American City Business Journal’s The Playbook, Athlon Sports, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, FanSided.com, Fox News, Fox News Digital/FOX.com, The Wall Street Journal, UPI, Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Sports – news organizations from all the top 25 DMA markets and an additional 200 local markets.

• Heid has led national and regional teams for multi-national clients at the agency level, including McDonald’s, ExxonMobil, USAA Insurance, Staples, Royal Caribbean Group, Chubb Insurance, Verizon Telematics and Wireless, and Old Dominion Freight Line.
• During his nine-year career at Weber Shandwick, Heid also provided media strategy and support for Anheuser-Busch, Bayer Crop Science, Bayer Hawaii, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Coca-Cola, DraftKings, IBM, Novartis, Royal Caribbean, Stanley Black & Decker, Tork Paper, Varo Bank, Wellstar Health and more.
• As a result of his leadership of the Lee Street PR team supporting McDonald’s, the company brought Heid inhouse to serve an embedded role as Field PR Manager for McDonald’s Field Offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Nashville that included 12 states in Q4 2023/Q1 2024.
• Heid led Weber’s Lee Street Team to three PRSA award nominations and three awards over a four-year span.
• An agriculture media expert, Heid led a multi-state grass roots campaign for Invest in Our Land to push for farm bill passage by the U.S. Congress and is part of Crackle PR’s team that represents InnerPlant, a leading seed technology company.
• Heid’s experience in the insurance and financial services industry includes an inhouse role at Allstate Insurance Company, a leadership role on the proactive media team for Weber Shandwick’s USAA account team and a member of the Ted Davis Communications team that supports Arthur J. Gallagher.
• A former print and online journalist in New York and Atlanta, Heid’s PR experience includes in-house leadership roles at Verizon Connect (formerly Verizon Telematics), Manheim Auto Auctions, The Allstate Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company’s Southeast Region and the Atlanta Thrashers NHL Hockey Club.
• Since March 2025, Heid has owned and operated John Heid PR, LLC, that includes clients: Athletes in Action, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Built Technologies, Camp Highland, Gas South District Arena, ToolBank USA and ToolBank USA’s Disaster Services division. Heid also serves as a consultant for Crackle PR, Klick Marketing, Ted Davis Communications, Wild Hive Marketing, and is a sports website content developer for Fellowship Christian School in Roswell, Ga.